~~ Monkey Mumblings ~~
Looking for past Mumblings? Check the Mumblings Archive.

~ 6 February 2008 ~

Hear ye! Hear ye! Be it known throughout the land that yesterday, 5 February 2008, Epona had the Monkey Braincell!

~ 28 October 2007 ~

Four-fifths of the Fuzzy Monkeys spent the last weekend down in Sacramento for Unmata's Blood Moon. First off, a ginormous thank you to Amy and Unmata for inviting us to participate in the Afterparty. We had so much fun and would totally love to do it again! And it's always great to have a girls weekend.

Friday afternoon, Epona and I flew down, followed by Sanafi and Aviva a few hours later. Several years ago I lived up in the Sierras a couple of hours away from Sacramento so I drove up with Epona to have dinner and see friends. The drive up there she kept saying to me, "I can't picture you living here. I can picture me living here." True statement. I don't know how I did it. Spent not nearly enough time with my friends before having to head back to Sacramento.

We arrived at the hotel around 12:30. (HUGE thank you to Devin for donating Marriott hotel points for the Monkeys to stay two nights for free. AND he donated frequent flyer miles for his wife and the littlest Monkey to make the trip.) We got a message from Sanafi that we were checked in and just had to pick up keys at the front desk. We walk in and there is no one there, just three security guards. They go to get the desk clerk and just as he's walking up, the phone starts ringing. I'm thinking, "Great, now we have to wait for him to deal with that first." Turns out he's talking to Aviva to see if we've arrived.

Saturday during the day was filled with errands. Monkeys tend to use a lot of props in their performances. And a pedestal doesn't fit in the overhead compartment on the plane, so we needed to find one. So it's off to Home Depot. Then we need some flowers and it's over to JoAnn's. Someone forgot socks, so off to Nordstrom Rack and back to the hotel. Met up with the other Monkeys for lunch and more errands. Back to Nordstrom Rack, over to Ulta, then back to the hotel to get ready.

Instead to doing dinner, we decided just to cruise through the local supermarket and pick up some snacks, magazines, beverages, and sit in line at the theater to wait for Blood Moon. The show was great! Lots of talent and many styles of dance and music. My favorites were the elephants, the lemurs, the meerkats, the giraffe, the zoo keeper, the family, and THE RACCOONS!!!!

Now it's time to venture over to the next venue for the Afterparty. We get there and the doors aren't open yet and Aviva has to use the restroom. Nowhere was open and the gas station's was out of order. After pleading with some poor woman at Popeye's she finally gets some relief. And good thing. We get back to the second venue and have to wait at least 15 minutes before the doors open. Lots of great talent at UN-Tagged too! So many good memories and great times! Got back to the hotel at 2:30 in the morning very tired but very awake, so rather than wake up early to pack, packed then. After little sleep it was time to go.

The other three were on the 12:22 flight and I was on the 3:14. They left about an hour before me and I took my time to get to the airport but was still there by noon. I got to my gate and noticed that their flight was delayed until 2:25. I looked all over the terminal for them but they weren't there. They decided to eat lunch in another terminal first. Finally saw them come through security around 1:00. My flight was on time, meanwhile their flight kept getting delayed. By the time I left, they were scheduled to depart at 4:25. Since Epona and I flew down together, her car was at my house. By the time she got here, I had unpacked, put my suitcase away, and my laundry was already in the dryer.

So drowsy at work today that I left at 12:30.

GOOD TIMES!
~Kasima

~ 27 August 2007 ~

Whew! What a weekend! The Monkeys spent four fabulous days at The Emerald Sanctuary Bellydance Retreat. How do I encapsulate the experience? … I can't yet. I'll try later, but for now you'll have to make do with some new Monkey Quotes and some pics on the Silly Monkeys page. There will be more of both and hopefully some pics from the weekends' two haflas. Check back now and then to see.
I've also moved the video links to their own page. Each vid link has a linked pic, too, so you can figure out what you're looking for that way. Check out the new Monkey Dance! page.
~Eula

~ 8 August 2007 ~

We've been hacked. Twice in the past fortnight. Most annoying. Not that there was any damage done to the site itself. No. Rather the little bastards got in and created POP email accounts from which to spam people using the good Fuzzy Monkeys name. Fortunately, the impending server upgrade will help this problem, as will the beginning of the school year. You see, this sort of thing picks up in the summer because these "script kiddies" are primarily students who apparently have nothing better to do with their summer breaks than steal other people's things. This suggests to this cynical Monkey that they are teenaged boys who can't get laid. Whatever the case, may their identities be stolen and used to purchase luxury vehicles, and may it take them fourteen years to get their credit lines cleared afterward. So mote it be.
~Eula

~ 24 July 2007 ~

MedFest is over for another year and what fun it was!
Kasima's class troupe, BellyVision, performed on Saturday night and while I wasn't able to see them, I hear they were great. I think they must've been, considering what I've seen of their routine in rehearsal. :-D
We Monkeys had the priviledge of dancing first on Sunday, and I'm glad to say that the rain had stopped by then. I've never seen such a moist MedFest! Our new "urban tribal" routine was well received although we were a bit sad that all the kids in the front row of the audience didn't get up an jump with us at the end. (Watch the vid. This will make sense. There's a link on the Monkey Fun page under the Monkey Dance header.)
We got to see some other fantastic dancers perform before we all collapsed into exhaustion. Roxelana had a great routine inspired by "The Birdcage". I was (as always) blown away by Infusion Tribal. Saqra gave a performance that was yet more proof that the woman is a Master Class in What To Do When Something Goes Wrong. And Indigo showed some awsome new "wiggly bit" moves. ;-D
~Eula

~ 3 July 2007 ~

So I found the energy to do something more exciting. Don't ask where I found it; I do not know. Hope you like the new look. I call it "jungle sassy".
~Eula

~ 1 July 2007 ~

By the Great Monkey! Has it been that long since I posted a mumbling? Deary dear. ::shakes head at self:: Well, I didn't hear anyone complaining, so I'll assume no one's overly upset about it. I just thought I'd point out that I changed the background colour. Did you notice? My eyes were tired of the pretty butter yellow, but I didn't feel like thinking hard enough to come up with an exciting change. Hence the warm off-white. ::shrug:: I like it…until I have the energy to do something more exciting.
~Eula

~ 12 December 2006 ~

One more holiday show down. Or is that holiday showdown? No, really, it was fun for all--despite some Grinchy mumblings along the way. Working with the folks at Driftwood was a great chance for us to remount our holiday routines from 2003. And who could resist the opportunity to put Epona into yet another crazy Monkey costume? ::evil grin:: She keeps threatening to find our Magic Monkey Wand and break it. You know--the magic wand that makes her agree to wear these things. She'll never find it. ::heh, heh, heh::
~Eula

~ 11 November 2006 ~

Hasani's Hafla was this evening and the Monkeys were on first. (Well, after Hasani, but she opens and closes every hafla so no one has the onus of going first or last. She's kind and generous that way--and lots of other ways.) There were brain farts and the stickiest floor outside of a movie theatre that I've ever encountered, but people laughed, we stayed in character, and fun was had by all…at least as far as I could tell. If you didn't have fun, don't tell me. :-P
We got to see Roxelana dance, which was swell because she'd gotten off the performance wagon for quite a while. It was super to see her back on again. Yay, Roxelana! You go, girl!
~Eula

~ 6 November 2006 ~

If you've been here before you might have noticed a bit of downtime on the site recently. We apologize if it's caused you any inconvenience. We are up and running again now with some minor design changes and some major updates. Not everything it back up yet, so your continued patience is appreciated. Meanwhile, please poke about the site and enjoy!
~Eula

~ 16 October 2006 ~

I read an excellent article in the Seattle Times today. It's about the importance of female friends in a woman's life. That's not what it says explicitly, but that's what it boils down to. Women need other women for friendship and support and just to be a chick with, you know? If you don't, well, that's a pity. Here's the article text for you to read.

There was also a nice little article about a group of women who started gathering in 1997 for "an annual celebration" of sillyness, frivolity, and second-hand prom dresses. It's also a chance to share big news, good or bad, and just revel in being girl friends.

The reason I bring this up is because too many women don't understand the importance of female friends. We can be so competitive and cut-throat with each other, and it's a shame. There are enough hurdles in this world; we shouldn't provide more for each other. Bellydance is a great female community activity. Treasure it and your chicas. They're more important than you might realize.

~Eula